Ron Washington Manager of Year through 1/3 season

[FWHORN]

How the Rangers can be 28-26 with the Mash unit they are running out every day is just incredible to me. This team should be dead buried and mailing it in but they have gone on a nice little 7 of 9 win streak to get within 4 games of the A's and 2 games over .500. More than that, they and are playing as well as anyone in MLB. Wash gets a ton of criticism but I come today in praise of him and what he has done through the first third of the season, by far the best managing job in baseball this year!

 

[FWHORN]

Talk about the kiss of death post. Rangers are 15-43 since my post. So in the immortal words of Gilda Radner. NEVER MIND.

 

[ViperHorn]

If this was a normal injury driven swoon I would say both Wash and Daniels were both safe ... except not all of the issues can be blamed on injuries.

This is the worse defensive team that I have seen in years. Bobbling balls allowing people to reach base; dropping balls; balls bouncing off people heads; and so on shows not only a lack of effort on the players part, but also a manager losing the team. On top of that they haven't had a decent hitting coach since Hurdle left. All leads to some serious issues with the manager.

Daniels has shown nothing this year. Obligating the owners to pay Fielder $138 million without a major medical exam is inexcusable and should have been an immediate firing offense. Yes you don't make most active players take physicals, but one that brings a major financial commitment has to be checked out by everyone. Choo is a disappointment, but that one is just how baseball goes.

However Daniels biggest failure is the pitching staff. Even with no injuries he has needed a number 1 and number3 for two seasons. (Yu is a number 2 due to language issues prohibiting him being a clubhouse leader.) Holland is a 4 at best, but it now looks like Colby has stepped into that role. That is it for the starters, but the bigger issue is there is not a closer in sight.

 

[Crockett]

Jon Daniels took a team near bankruptcy to build a squad that won two pennants. He's made some mistakes. Funny thing is that Jimmy Johnson for all his vaunted skill at GM made some mistakes too, drafting Walsh in the first round, trading premium picks for injury plagued Alonzo Highsmith...

If you're afraid of mistakes, then you'll never be a great GM. If I could have my choice of any general manager, I'd fire Daniels. Is Billy Beane available? If not, I'm keeping Daniels.

 

[Horns11]

This was just a perfect storm year. Not much anyone from Wash to JD could have done about it. I agree that the Fielder trade looks idiotic in hindsight, but that's clearly not the only roster issue this team has.